Sunday, August 26, 2012

The Bahraini security forces have started spraying
toxic gasses in areas where members of opposition groups reside and in
those areas and districts which witness daily popular protests against
the Al-Khalifa regime, reports said.

Several Bahraini news websites reported on Thursday that large groups
of al-Khalifa forces attacked a large number of districts in the
Bahraini cities and villages to suppress and arrest those who had
attended the protest rallies against the ruling system.

They also sprayed toxic gasses at residential districts and people’s houses.

Earlier reports from the Arab country said that as protests continue
in Bahrain, the police keep bombarding dissenters with tear gas, which
local residents say is now getting both stronger and thicker. It’s not
only affecting just protesters, either - tear gas is getting into
people’s homes. For many, it’s now becoming part of everyday life.

Bahraini human rights groups have cried out against the widespread
use of tear gas, which they say is being spread haphazardly in areas
where the authorities believe protesters live, notably lower-income
Shiite neighborhoods. Several cases of death by suffocation have been
reported, including of people inside their homes.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations
across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the Al
Khalifa dynasty’s over-40-year rule.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led
conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian
Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar - were dispatched to the tiny
Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

So far, tens of protesters have been killed, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured.

Police clampdown on protesters continues daily. Authorities have
tried to stop organized protests by opposition parties over the past
month by refusing to license them and using tear gas on those who turn
up.
The opposition coalition wants full powers for the elected parliament and a cabinet fully answerable to parliament.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Recent months have provided the world with
a grotesque spectacle of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the other reactionary
Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf pretending to take the lead in the
struggle for democracy and human rights in a number of countries, most
recently Syria.

Image: The unelected, autocratic despotic monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

....

Now, there are numerous signs that a revolutionary upsurge may soon be on the agenda in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, with Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Oman possibly not far behind. The successful overthrow of the oppressive monarchies of these nations would be an event of world historical significance, and would represent a victory for world peace and a grievous defeat for the imperialist world domination of Washington and London.

The reactionary monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula on the shores of the Persian Gulf are all members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which was formed to support Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war. Jordan and Morocco, the two Arab monarchies outside of the Persian Gulf, have been invited to join the GCC, which would make it a kind of self-defense league for endangered royals. The GCC has also talked of making a transition from regional bloc to confederation; Saudi Arabia advocates this idea, while the other monarchies fear being swallowed up.

The Arab monarchies that emerged under British auspices from the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire have always represented an anachronism, in sharp contradiction to the whole direction of modern history and human progress elsewhere in the world.

The last hundred years have seen a nearly uninterrupted catalog of monarchies which have become extinct. The Chinese Empire ended in 1911. At the end of World War I, monarchies were falling like bowling pins. This included the Habsburg Emperors of Austria-Hungary, the Romanoff Czars of Russia, and the Hohenzollern Emperors of Germany and Kings of Prussia. The Sultan or Caliph of the Ottoman Empire was also deposed. These were soon followed by the Spanish monarchy. The Japanese tried to create a new empire in Manchuria, but they were unsuccessful. At the end of World War II, additional monarchies became extinct in Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. In July, 1952, King Farouk of Egypt was overthrown by Colonel Nasser and the Free Officers movement. The British had installed King Idris as Libyan ruler in 1951, but he was ousted by a military coup led by Colonel Qaddafi. The Hashemite rulers of Iraq were ousted in 1958 by the coup led by General Kasem. In the 1970s, Spain swam against the tide by restoring its royal house. But around the same time the Greek monarchy came to an end. The Islamic Revolution in Iran overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in February 1979.

Only in the Arab territories of the former Ottoman Empire could monarchy make a comeback, due largely to the influence of the British Empire, and then increasingly to the support of the United States. The current monarchy of the House of Saud emerged during World War I under the sponsorship of the British, who through Lawrence of Arabia had incited the Arabs of Hijaz to rebel against the Turkish Sultan. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the British tried to put Syria and Iraq under a monarchy of the House of Hashem, and the Hashemites hold the Jordanian Crown today.

Saudi Arabia is still an absolute monarchy. Few people in the West have any comprehension of what this means. Under the House of Saud, there are no guaranteed rights, no separation of powers, no checks and balances, no guarantee of due process. There is no written constitution. The monarch is considered to be the owner of the entire country and of all the people in it, over whom he exercises a theoretical - and sometimes grimly practical - power of life and death. Representative bodies are sometimes chosen or nominated, but they are purely consultative: they can offer advice the crown, but they have no power to block or implement any policy.

Absolute monarchy also prevails under the Thani family in Qatar, the home of the Al Jazeera propaganda channel. After World War II, Qatar was one of the poorest countries in the region, with a pearl industry in decline. The Thanis, like the Sauds, are members of the militant Wahhabite sect, and for a time they were in danger of being absorbed into the Saudi kingdom. The Thani royals were saved by the discovery of oil, and by their Exclusive Agreement with Great Britain. There is a tradition of coup d’état by disgruntled factions inside the royal family, and there may have been an attempt of this type in the spring of 2012.

Another absolute monarchy is that of the Sultanate of Oman, which is subjected to the rule of Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said, who overthrow his own father in a palace coup in July 1973 and sent him to live out his days in Claridges Hotel in London. The Saids have been in power since 1744.

Bahrain, since 1783 under the rule of the Khalifa family, claims to be a constitutional monarchy, but the events of the last 18 months have shown that the monarchical power is practically totalitarian. Bahrain was a British protectorate until 1971. The Khalifas are Sunni Muslims in a majority Shiite country, and nevertheless they monopolize the most important posts in the government. Oil was discovered in Bahrain in 1932, before any of the other Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and oil production has been in decline. As a result, the standard of living here is lower than in the neighboring countries. The monarchy was saved from possible overthrow by a mass upsurge on March 14, 2011 thanks to the Peninsula Shield Force of Saudi and Emirati personnel which crushed the protest demonstrations. Demonstrators have been subjected to draconian jail sentences, while censorship and electronic surveillance remain the order of the day.

The United Arab Emirates, the old Trucial States, are a confederation of seven absolute mini-monarchies, of which the most important are Abu Dhabi under the Nahyans and Dubai under the Maktoum family. These were under British rule until 1971. Along with Qatar, the UAE has been at the forefront of attempts to destabilize Syria. The UAE also took the lead during the attack on Libya, and now hopes to play a prominent role in the looting of Libya’s oil wealth under the new regime.

Kuwait is ruled by the Sabah family, who were restored by US in the first Persian Gulf War. During that conflict, it was revealed that the Sabahs, like their monarchical colleagues, still practice household slavery, which the US under George H. W. Bush, was thus supporting. During the Iraq war, Kuwait was turned into a US garrison state. Kuwait has a parliament, but the government is appointed by the Sabahs. The opposition is pressing for full parliamentary democracy, while the Sabahs are trying to hold on to power by changing the voting law.

All of these monarchies fear their own populations. They therefore rely on the support of the United States and the British. In addition, they also cooperate closely with the Israeli Mossad.

The hedonistic Persian Gulf monarchs need to contemplate the sad fate of Louis Philippe II, the Duke of Orleans, in the French Revolution. Descended from the younger branch of the French royal House of Bourbon, he thought he could ride the tiger of revolutionary agitation and gain more power for himself. He called himself Philippe Egalité, and organized the 1789 storming of the Bastille which set off the revolution. He voted for the death sentence for his relative, Louis XVI. But in the end, the forces Philippe Egalité had unleashed turned against him, and he died on the guillotine in November 1793 at the height of the reign of terror which he had helped to unleash. The Persian Gulf monarchs pretending to support revolutions should take note.

To qualify as a real revolution, a political upheaval needs to create an important and lasting institutional change. This can be the overthrow of the monarchy, the ouster of a foreign colonial power, a land reform capable of breaking the power of latifundists, the abolition of slavery, or other achievements of the same magnitude. By this measure, the French, American, Russian, Chinese, Egyptian, and Iranian revolutions fulfill the necessary criteria.

By contrast, the events of the Arab Spring have so far fallen short. In Egypt in particular, it was clear that the seizure of power by the Army in the wake of Mubarak’s departure meant that a second revolution would be needed - just as the Russian Revolution of February 1917 was followed by the October Revolution of the same year. Whether Egypt gets a second revolution remains to be seen.

But the overthrow of the House of Saud, likely followed by the toppling of its satellites in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, would send positive shockwaves around the world. In addition to lifting an oppressive yoke from the populations involved, it would accelerate the transition from the unipolar world domination exercised by the Anglo-Americans after 1992, and would speed the transition towards world normalization on a multi-polar basis. Because imperialism would be significantly weakened by the fall of these kings, the future of national states would become brighter all over the planet. WGT/JR

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Image: Saudi
Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz (C) is escorted by Turkish
President Abdullah Gul (C-R) as Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati (L)
walks alongside them during an extraordinary summit of the Organisation
of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Mecca.

....

As the Organisation of
Islamic Cooperation (OIC) concludes its emergency summit in Mecca this
week with the suspension of Syria, its member states should now consider
amending the body’s name - to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
with United States Imperialism (OICUSI).

For the OIC stands as a violation of every principle it is supposed
to represent. In calling for this conference with its flagrantly
politicised agenda, Saudi Arabia emerges as the shame of the Islamic
world.

Admittedly, the acronym OICUSI is a bit clunky, but it would be far
more truthful than the present OIC. The 57-member organisation, founded
in 1969, represents some two billion Muslims worldwide and is charged
with “promoting solidarity among members and upholding peace and
security”.

Far from promoting solidarity and peace, the OIC has shown itself to
be a political instrument serving the geopolitical interests of
Washington and its allies in the destruction of Syria and their designs
for entrenching hegemonic control over the Middle East. That control is
all about exploiting the resources of the region to enrich Western
corporations and banks, paying off elite rulers and impoverishing the
mass of people.

Of course the Syrian people want reform and more democracy. But they
won’t achieve that so long as Saudi Arabia and the other Western
proxies remain on their thrones of deception colluding with the foreign
enemies of the people.

Just at the hour when the people of Syria are desperately in need of
international solidarity and peace, the OIC delivers a kick in the
teeth.

In this way, the OIC is following in the disgraceful footsteps of
the 21-member Saudi-dominated Arab League, which suspended Syria last
November.

These sanctions against Damascus are based on the
entirely bogus claim fomented by Washington and the former colonial
powers London and Paris that the conflict in Syria stems solely from
repression and violence perpetrated by the government of President
Bashar Al Assad against his people. This propaganda narrative turns
reality completely on its head. The violence in Syria over the past 17
months has largely stemmed from armed groups that are supplied, directed
and infiltrated by the Western powers in collusion with Turkey, Saudi
Arabia, Qatar and Israel.

The US-led axis is attempting to tear Syria apart by fuelling
sectarian bloodshed between Sunni and Shia Muslims, and between Muslims,
Christians, Druze and Kurds. The desecration of Islam is particularly
vile. Mosques have been turned into sniper posts to fire on civilians,
and whole villages have been massacred - the throats of children slit -
by so-called Holy Warriors.

These jihadists, who have gravitated to Syria from Britain, Libya,
Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, among other countries, are directed by
Washington, London and Paris in time-honoured fashion of these powers’
criminal involvement with Islamic fundamentalists under the catch-all
nom de guerre of Al Qaeda. They are weaponised by Saudi Arabia, Qatar
and Israel; they are trained and based by Turkey and Jordan. And their
brains are weaponised by Saudi Wahhabism, with all its intolerant
pathological hatred to anyone who opposes its tyranny and Western
objectives.

In the context of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, this
conspiracy of terror and mass murder should be matter of diabolical
shame for member states Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Jordan. These
supposedly Islamic countries are colluding with the Western powers and
their criminal Zionist proxy in the murder of Muslims and other Syrians
in the service of imperialist domination of the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia in particular is seen as abusing its
historic role as custodian of the holy Islamic centre of Mecca to
further a despicable political agenda. By calling the extraordinary
meeting of the OIC in Mecca - supposedly to discuss the violence in
Syria - Saudi Arabia is covering its blood-soaked hands with a mantle of
religious sanctity.

By contrast, Iran’s delegation to the OIC conference, headed by
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stood out as upholding the principles of
the organisation. Iran rightly pointed out the basic injustice that the
Syrian government was not even invited to the Mecca conference to hear
the charges being levelled against it, and to have the opportunity to
defend itself against such charges. One shouldn’t be surprised by the
absence of jurisprudence for Syria at the Saudi-orchestrated event.
After all, thousands of ordinary Bahrainis are being dragged through
military courts in Saudi-backed Bahrain solely on the basis of trumped
up prosecutions with no right to defend themselves either.

Iran’s foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi noted at the beginning of
the three-day conference: “Every country, especially OIC countries, must
join hands to resolve this issue in such a way that will help the
peace, security and stability in the region.”

He warned: “By suspending [Syria’s] membership, this does not mean
you are moving towards resolving an issue. By this, you are erasing the
issue.”

Unfortunately, Salehi’s sound advice was ignored. With typical
Wahhabist attitude of no discussion, no explanation, the Saudi-hosted
conference ended with the formal suspension of Syria from the OIC. The
heavy-handed conclusion achieves what it was meant to: to not give Syria
a fair hearing, to further isolate the country in the eyes of the
world, to conceal the violent involvement of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar
and Jordan in the destruction of Syria, and to give political cover for
their imperialist masters in the dismemberment of Syria.

The Mecca summit has all the signs of a tawdry show trial,
shamefully under the banner of Islam, conducted, of all places, in the
holy city. Current OIC chief is Turkish national Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.
He said the decision to suspend Syria sent “a strong message” to
Damascus.

A statement issued at the end of the summit said participants had
agreed on “the need to end immediately the acts of violence in Syria and
to suspend that country from the OIC”.

The suspension was “also a message to the international community
stating that the Muslim world backs a peaceful solution [in Syria],
wants an end to the bloodshed and refuses to let the problem degenerate
into a religious conflict and spill over into the wider region,” the OIC
chief Ihsanoglu added.

Absolutely not true. First, if the OIC was serious about “ending
immediately the acts of violence in Syria” then it would have suspended
the memberships foremost of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Turkey - the
instigators of so-much bloodshed, terrorism and crimes against humanity
in Syria that are inflaming the region.

Second, on the claim that “the Muslim world backs a peaceful
solution in Syria”, it should be noted that the Geneva accord agreed by
the UN Security Council at the end of June, which calls for an inclusive
political dialogue in Syria, has been continually violated by the
Western, Arab, Turk, Israeli backers of the Jihadist terror army
assailing that country.

At the OIC summit, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in particular have
arrogated the banner of the Muslim world, when in truth they are the
unseemly standard bearers for imperialist butchery in the Middle East.

In this holy month of Ramadan, where faith, compassion and truth
before God is supposed to be adhered to more than ever, the Saudi OIC
conference is truly an abomination of all that is supposedly represented
by “Islam/peace”.

Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he was surprised, during a recent summit in
Saudi Arabia, to see the monarchs of certain countries speak of the need
for reforms in Syria while their own rules were unpopular at home.

Referring to the recent meeting of the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC) in Mecca, Ahmadinejad said “I was surprised in this
summit [to see] that the kings of some countries were speaking against
Syria while the majority of their own people do not want them [to
rule].”

The Iranian president made the comment in a Wednesday meeting with
his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul on the sidelines of the OIC
emergency meeting in Saudi Arabia.

During their meeting, Ahmadinejad underlined the inevitability of
reforms but added, “I am of course waiting to see when these reforms
will reach the other countries in the region.”

Killings and war cannot be employed to achieve reforms, the Iranian president pointed out.

Noting that all nations desire justice, freedom and respect, he
emphasized that “no one can win by force,” and a government that comes
to power by force cannot remain independent.

The Iranian chief executive further reiterated that the Islamic
Republic is prepared to do whatever it can to establish a calm, humane
and fair environment in Syria “so that people will no longer be killed
and the situation will not get complicated.”

President Gul, for his part, underlined his country’s friendship
with Iran and asserted that Turkey was pursuing its principles,
including the the establishment of peace.

The two-day emergency meeting of the OIC members was held upon the
request of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz in Mecca to address major
issues facing the Muslim world as well as the latest developments in the
region.

Image: (PressTV) Bahraini protesters take part in a
demonstration in solidarity with leading activist Nabeel Rajab in the
village of Sitra, south of Manama, on June 7, 2012.

The anti-regime rally was staged on
Monday night following similar protests in several villages and towns
across the country over the past days.

Bahraini government forces have used excessive force
against the protesters since the beginning of demonstrations in February
2011.

According to the leading opposition party, al-Wefaq National Islamic
Society, more than 1,400 prisoners are being kept as hostages in the
regime’s jails.

The group has accused the Manama regime of responding to the demands of the people with killings, arrests and torture.

Meanwhile, Bahraini security forces arrested four protesters in the
northern village of Tubli on Sunday. The Bahraini forces also attacked
protesters during an anti-regime rally in the northeastern island of
Sitra.

The police frequently use teargas canisters, rubber bullets, and sound grenades to disperse the protesters.The demonstrators hold King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa responsible for
the deaths of the protesters since the beginning of the revolution.

Scores of people have been killed and many others have been injured
in the Saudi-backed crackdown on the peaceful protests in Bahrain.

Bahrain hosts the US Navy Fifth Fleet and is among the Persian Gulf
countries such as Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab
Emirates that receive military equipment from the United States.

Meanwhile, protesters in Manama torched tires and blocked the roads near the Bahrain International Airport.

Bahrainis continue peaceful demonstrations against the
ruling monarchy, despite the regime’s violent crackdown on the protests.
The police frequently use teargas canisters, rubber bullets, and sound
grenades to disperse the protesters.

The demonstrators hold King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa responsible for
the deaths of the protesters during the uprising that began in February
2011.

Bahrain hosts the US Navy Fifth Fleet and is among the Persian Gulf
countries such as Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab
Emirates that receive military equipment from the United States.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Syrian Ambassador to Nouakchott Hamad
Seed Albni has rejected an offer by Qatar’s Embassy in Mauritania to
defect from the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in return
for certain incentives.

Map: Mauritania is in northwestern Africa. Syria's ambassador to the nation was approached by his Qatari counterpart in a bid to buy him off and further undermine the government of Syria.

....

Qatar’s ambassador to Mauritania
proposed his Syrian counterpart in Nouakchott a million dollars in cash,
a monthly salary of 20,000 dollars for 20 years and permanent residence
in Qatari capital of Doha, the Lebanese-based Al-Manar TV reported.

The Syrian ambassador refused the offer for his defection and said it was a “blatant interference” in Syria’s affairs.

Albni warned his Qatari counterpart against the repetition of such a move.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV in July, Syria’s
Parliament Speaker Mohammed Jihad al-Laham criticized Turkey, Saudi
Arabia and Qatar for fueling the unrest in his country by supporting the
insurgents fighting against the government.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people,
including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the
unrest.

Image: (PressTV) A snapshot from a TV news showing two of the Lebanese hostages abducted in Syria on May 22.

....

Press TV has reported in their article, "Families of Lebanese abductees slam Qatar for kidnappings," that "the families of the 11
Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria have staged a sit-in in front of
Qatar’s embassy in Beirut, declaring Doha responsible for the lives of
the abductees." It also reported that, ""the 11 Lebanese pilgrims were returning from a pilgrimage in Iran
when they were kidnapped by Syrian insurgents near Syria’s northern
province of Aleppo on May 22."

Qatar is openly arming and funding the terrorists inside Syria responsible for these kidnappings and many other atrocities.

Clearly then Qatar is complicit in the violence and atrocities carried out by militants they are underwriting, and responsible for the innocent lives being jeopardized and lost.

Terrorists operating in Syria are notorious for kidnapping, torturing, and mass murdering civilians and tourists alike, as detailed in Human Rights Watch's own report "Syria: Armed Opposition Groups Committing Abuses" (summary here). While HRW has reported these atrocities, it along with the Western media, has attempted to downplay, spin, and excuse them, allowing Western governments and their Gulf allies to continue supporting, funding, and arming the militants.

The most recent kidnapping by militants in Syria involves 48 Iranian pilgrims in Damascus. Iran has also approached Qatar as well as Turkey in an attempt negotiate for their release.

Friday, August 10, 2012

At home - Saudi domestic media ignores, while others scorn, own female athletes.

IOGSD
August 10, 2012

Editorial- I am no fan of the Olympics. I see it as a corporate-financier diversion expending vital resources that benefit mainly large corporations and provide only temporary windfalls for locals who would be better served if longer-term programs were invested in instead. The Olympics however can serve as a metric for many geopolitical trends and phenomenons.

Image: The bottom-line, not human rights, is the purpose of the Olympic Games - therefore superficial concessions on basic human rights can be made by states cooperating with the corporate-financier interests that dominate this Fortune 500 diversion.

....

It is the year 2012 - man has long since landed on the moon, there are trains speeding across China hovering on a cushion of magnetism, and the computational power of our handheld phones dwarfs that of institutional mainframes from years ago. Yet in the year 2012, Saudi Arabia has only just now allowed women (2 of them) to compete on its behalf at the Olympics.

How Saudi Arabia hasn't been banned from the Olympics is a testament to the double standards of this faux-international faux-progressive global event. Indeed, Saudi Arabia, despite its medieval posture toward 50% of its population, has been freely allowed to participate in the games for decades.

Saudi Arabia plays nicely behind the scenes with the vast Western corporate-financier interests of Wall Street and London, it possesses vast oil wealth, and it is an integral lynchpin in Western geopolitical interests across the Muslim World, not just in the Middle East. This is why it is allowed to do what it wants to its own people via its draconian domestic policy, and people abroad via its terroristic foreign policy.

And while some might say that this year's inclusion of Saudi women at the Olympics is a sign of progress - I assure you it is not. It is crass propaganda for the sole consumption of gullible international opinion. That is because back at home, Saudi Arabia's female Olympians are either entirely ignored by the Saudi press, or are in fact berated, scorned, and mocked. Saudi Arabia's media, it should be known, is largely owned by the Saudi government, or in other words, the autocratic absolute monarchy that runs the nation.

That the media then is ignoring these athletes indicates that Saudi Arabia's "reforms" are utterly disingenuous - window dressing for an increasingly suspicious international public who has been barraged by Western and Gulf State-funded "Arab Spring" slogans for nearly 2 years and is left confounded over how the Gulf State despots themselves have remained unscathed.

While the Western media has decided to applaud the Saudi despots for their "historic" decision to allow women to participate in the 2012 Olympics, there is nothing "historic" about window-dressing PR stunts conducted in lieu of real reform. In 2012, the Olympics have left me with yet another reason to boycott and tune out this exercise in excess - accepting Saudi Arabia's disingenuous gesture, and calling it "progress."

Saudi protesters have staged a demonstration in the city of Taif, calling for the release of political prisoners in the kingdom.

People in Taif in the southwest of the country demonstrated on Thursday to express solidarity with political prisoners.

The protesters also demanded an end to rights violations in the monarchy.

Saudi Arabia has arrested scores of anti-government protesters since
the beginning of the uprising in the country. Prominent Shia cleric
Sheikh Nemr Baqir al-Nemr is among the detainees.

Sheikh Nemr was injured and arrested by Saudi security
forces of the Al Saud regime while driving from a farm to his house in
Qatif on July 8.
Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an
almost regular basis in the Kingdom's east, mainly in Qatif and
Awamiyah.

The demonstrators called for the release of all political prisoners,
freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to widespread
discrimination.

However, the demonstrations have turned into protests against the
repressive Al Saud regime, especially since November 2011, when Saudi
security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the
oil-rich region.

Saudi journalist Khaled al-Harbi wrote in an article that while
Saudi Arabia earns 1,500 billion riyals (around 400 billion dollars) a
year, the average salary of an ordinary Saudi citizen is around 1,500
riyals (around 400 dollars) a month.

Saudi activists have criticized Riyadh for spending vast sums on
buying arms from the West and not helping the millions living in
poverty.

In 2010, Riyadh purchased over 60 billion dollars worth of weapons
from the United States, which Washington lauded as the largest arms deal
in history.

The Shia cleric has been severely tortured by Saudi security forces in jail.

The Saudi protesters also expressed solidarity with
anti-regime protesters in Bahrain, who have been brutally suppressed by
the Saudi-backed forces of the Persian Gulf island state.

Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an
almost regular basis in Saudi Arabia, mainly in Qatif and Awamiyah in
Eastern Province, primarily calling for the release of all political
prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, as well as an end to
widespread discrimination.

However, the demonstrations have turned into protests against the
repressive Al Saud regime, especially since November 2011 when Saudi
security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the
province.

Similar demonstrations have also been held in Riyadh and the holy city of Medina over the past few weeks.

Astounding hypocrisy, self-censorship, and complicity by the West regarding one of the most regressive regimes on Earth.

The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of
the Gulf (GCC) comprises of 6 nations, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain,
Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. In principle, Kuwait and
Bahrain are considered "constitutional monarchs," in practice, all 6 are
despotic autocracies with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab
Emirates, and Oman overtly "absolute monarchs." Devoid of even a feigned
semblance of representative governance, these regimes brutally repress
not only their own subjects, but play active roles in repressing the
people of other nations, both on their borders and well beyond them. Saudi
Arabia and Qatar are playing an active role in crushing dissent in
neighboring Bahrain - an opaque uprising obscured by a lack of Western
media coverage - apparently the result of Western press houses
conveniently ignoring unrest targeting governments linked to Western
interests, while intentionally subverting nations opposed to Western
interests.

Image: A map of the GCC's members, a collection of
interconnected absolute monarchies guilty of serial crimes against
humanity both at home and abroad, for decades. We are now expected to
believe this criminal collaboration is promoting "democracy" in both
Libya and now Syria by sending in legions of armed sectarian militants,
when not even a feigned semblance of democracy exists within their own
borders.

The term "pro-democracy" has been disingenuously used to describe the
militant legions that very "undemocratic" nations like Saudi Arabia and
Qatar are underwriting. Clearly, even at face value, this is an
untenable narrative. Under closer scrutiny, it unravels further,
exposing a criminal, murderously violent, terroristic conspiracy of vast
international proportions.

Of the GCC, perhaps the two most prominent members are Saudi Arabia and
Qatar, with the House of Saud leading, and the Qataris playing a
supporting role, mainly in terms of propaganda via state-owned Al Jazeera, by hosting "defectors," and hosting the regional headquarters of Western corporate-financier funded think-tanks like the Brookings Institution's Doha Centre.

Saudi Arabia: 10 Truths Self-Censored by the West's Media Houses

1. Saudi Arabia is so utterly
autocratic it is literally named after the ruling dynasty, the House
of Saud. Thus it is Arabia of the House of Saud, or "Saudi
Arabia."

3. Women are banned from driving in
Saudi Arabia, and most likely would also be banned from voting in national elections, if
such a phenomenon even occurred - which it does not - as Saudi Arabia
is an absolute monarchy and its leaders are determined by heredity,
not even the feigned pretense of elections. There are local elections, however, in which woman are not permitted to vote (perhaps in 2015?).

6. Saudi Arabian corporate-financier
interests (run by the royal family) are tied directly to Wall Street
and London via conglomerations like the US-Saudi Arabian Business Council and representation upon the JP Morgan International Council (Khalid Al-Falih of Saudi Aramco, amongst the highest valued companies on Earth).

7. The alleged most notorious terrorist
in modern history, Osama Bin Laden, was a creation of US-Saudi
machinations, with the Bin Laden family to this day being a premier
member of of both Saudi and Western elitist circles. The multi-billion dollar Saudi Binladin Group is an active member of the US-Saudi Arabian Business
Council and plays a central role in deciding bilateral policy for the
benefit of collective US-Saudi corporate-financier and corresponding
geopolitical interests.

8. The
autocratic House of Saud maintains Al Arabiya,
along with a extensive list of unsavory investors from across the GCC
and its sphere of influence, including Lebanon's Hariri faction. It is a
propaganda outlet
masquerading as an objective journalistic organization, working in
tandem with state-owned Al Jazeera in Qatar. Occasionally
admitted to be "state media" by the West, "state
media" in Saudi Arabia actually means "Saud family-owned propaganda."

9. Saudi Arabia has played an active
role in the violent destabilization of governments around the world,
including most recently Libya and Syria. The use of
sectarian-extremists indoctrinated at Saudi-funded faux-mosques and
madrasas, armed and funded by Saudi cash, is the standard method of
operation for these destabilizations.

Of course, not everyone in Saudi Arabia is a barbaric, treasonous,
meddling despot. This includes people all across Saudi Arabia's
population of 28 million and even throughout its government. Many of
these people have attempted to protest or reform the current state of
the "kingdom," albeit very unsuccessfully.

This failure can be in part blamed on the vast, draconian police state
created for the House of Saud despots by their Western sponsors as well
as a Western media complicit in censoring crackdowns on protesters, most recently unfolding in the eastern city of Qatif, and a virtual media "black hole" in regards to covering anything, good or bad, regarding Saudi Arabia.

The key to breaking this self-imposed Western media blockade is for the
alternative media to conduct the research and cover developments
themselves. This includes reaching out to activists and reformers within
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the other GCC autocracies and giving the
people the platform denied to them by the corporate-funded Western
media.

Image: The Fortune 500 has an array of faux-human rights organizations
from North Africa to the Middle East, from Eastern Europe to East Asia -
perhaps it is time for people to begin organizing themselves into
independent institutions that truly defend human rights and freedom,
while implementing an agenda of the majority. A possible "International
Observatory for Gulf State Despotism" would seek to break the Western
media's blockade on information regarding the GCC, serving as a
clearinghouse for information on abuses, repression, and meddling both
at home and abroad.

....

If you are from the GCC region, please contact LD at
cartalucci@gmail.com with any information, issues, corrections or
concerns. There may be a possible "International Observatory for Gulf
State Despotism" created specifically to give voices to the people under
the rule of the GCC. Please exercise good judgement and caution - as
these are real despots and have put many people to death for questioning
their undisputed rule or opposing the progress of their medieval
machinations.

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About IOGSD

The International Observatory of Gulf State Despotism (IOGSD) is a non-profit independent clearinghouse for information regarding Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.

Western media organizations have given them a free pass to commit transgressions against both their own people, and people abroad. IOGSD attempts to revoke that free pass.

IOGSD has no operating costs, accepts no donations or funding, and is run completely by volunteers.

IOGSD is a project by the Land Destroyer Report, also unfunded and done on a volunteer basis.